It’s a question every parent asks and if you read your parenting books, you may wonder why your baby doesn’t perform as expected. Well, when in doubt you can always check with your healthcare provider or pediatrician. But here are some good rules of thumb for how to feed your baby their first solids:
- Avoid Spicy Foods
- Avoid Foods that can trigger allergies (strawberries, egg whites, peanuts)
- Cereals like oatmeal and rice are usually dependent on taste
There are different arguments over what is the best food to start with when it comes to jar baby food. Do you give them fruits or vegetables? Are green vegetables better than carrots? What about meat? Before or after vegetables?
There is no one correct order. Many moms may choose vegetables before fruit because they think the fruit is sweeter. Breast milk is many times sweeter than any choice. Meat contains a lot of iron and for some babies, adding meat to their diet can make up for iron deficiencies.
You should learn your baby’s likes and dislikes. When my daughter was starting out solids, I trooped off to the grocery store and bought one jar of just about everything. She only did three or four teaspoons at any sitting, but I let her have the widest variety. She loved green beans, she loved peas, she hated carrots, she loved applesauce, she didn’t like potatoes (boy did that change when she met mashed potatoes straight).
As she developed her tastes, it was easy to eliminate certain types of food from the menu because she simply wouldn’t eat them. She didn’t like the meats in the jars – at ALL. But if I took a real piece of meat and chewed it up to make it mushy and fed her that – she loved it.
Okay, that’s a confession that made some parents shudder. But she was a breastfed baby so I didn’t see the problem with pre-chewing her food. Graduate gently and don’t be surprised if they only want one or two teaspoons of the food before they are done. Babies rarely finish a full jar when they are just starting out and some foods that they liked one week, they may not like the next. Provide them with a variety to let them try all of it out.